By: Jason Schouten, Vice-Chair of the Board of Governors
A couple of weeks ago I participated in a Project Management Course at Western University. I thought that the course would be a great opportunity to understand Project Management and would help me over the next couple of months as we undertake a building project at my elementary school.
What I didn’t expect was the first activity that we participated in. Each member of the workshop was asked to complete a Strength Deployment Inventory. To be honest, I wasn’t really all that interested in another character survey and don’t particularly like having generalizations made about who I am based on a handful of questions. So this test was initially met with some skepticism on my part. However, the assessment was quite interesting as it described one’s character during “regular” times as well as during “crisis.”
The instructor of the workshop described how understanding who we are during times of crisis can be extremely helpful for teams to function well during difficult times. She described a situation where a team felt that one of their members wasn’t engaged during a time of crisis. Typically, this individual (Jane) fit into the blue category (nurturing) and was quite social. However, in times of crisis, Jane moved towards the green section (analytical) and became very reflective and quiet. That quietness was misunderstood by Jane’s team as a lack of commitment to the project they were working on. Of course, that wasn’t the case as Jane took the situation very seriously and was trying to work through it in her own way. Knowledge of Jane’s tendencies during crisis would have been helpful for her team as they navigated the difficult waters they were in.
This got me thinking. How should a Christian act during times of crisis. In typical God fashion, I also happen to be studying Corinthians and came across the beautiful text about Love in chapter 13. As you can imagine, this text was not part of my workshop. In fact, love was never mentioned during the two days that I participated in this course.
It is my hope that as Christians, during crisis, we are still described as people of love.
My prayer for myself and for Redeemer is simple:
Heavenly Father, help us to be patient. Help us to be kind. Do not let us become envious and keep pride and boasting far from us. Help us to build others up and not dishonour them. Encourage us to put our own agendas aside and prioritize Your agenda. Make us patient and forgiving. Help us to always delight in the truth. In all things, help us to protect, trust, hope and persevere. In Christ’s holy name, amen.